After reading  Watts say that he’s looking at Obama, he’s off my list of respectable leaders.  What J.C. Watts said to me is that race matters more than principle.  Color matters more than ideology. As a woman, should I have been pulling for Hillary Clinton?  We’ve never had a woman president either. But you know, as a woman, it never entered my mind for one second that I would support Hillary.  Hillary, though engaged in an extreme campaign makeover, is liberal.  She was always the more liberal half of the Clinton marriage. And as a conservative, she wasn’t on my list of possibilities. Well, heck, as you know from my writing, McCain’s not really on the list either. I could and can understand if Watts came out and said that he was upset with the party.  Or he was upset with the choice of McCain.  Or whatever his beef with the GOP is.  But is voting for the big-government, marxist influenced, Chicago neophyte with a plethora of shady characters, terrorists, and race baiters in his circle of influence an answer?  Perhaps threatening to not vote, or vote Constitutional Party, or anything else.  But abandoning everything you claim to have stood for based on identity politics? It’s disappointing.

In Chattanooga, I was honored to attend the 1^st Annual Marilyn Lloyd dinner. It’s always feels like home when I run into state party Chairman Gray Sasser at these events. And I really enjoyed hearing my friend, Congressman Heath Shuler, speak.

He represents an Appalachian district in North Carolina, and his words rang so true when he talked about how Americans need to get back to the way we once were: If a neighbor’s barn burned down, everybody in the community would show up the next Saturday to rebuild it.

At least two people from Tennessee are among those exchanging vows in California after a landmark ruling allowing same-sex nuptials in that state went into effect. Already in the Bay area for a conference, 23-year-old Derek Norman and 39-year-old Robert Blaudow of Memphis decided to get married at the Alameda County clerk's office.

Watch out for cars with bumper stickers. That's the surprising conclusion of a recent study by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko. Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other "territorial markers" not only get mad when someone cuts in their lane or is slow to respond to a changed traffic light, but they are far more likely than those who do not personalize their cars to use their vehicles to express rage -- by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior.It does not seem to matter whether the messages on the stickers are about peace and love -- "Visualize World Peace," "My Kid Is an Honor Student" -- or angry and in your face -- "Don't Mess With Texas," "My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student."